A Wolf Clan's Rise
by Kutasan
Summary: I loved MMO's. They were fun and I had been playing them for years. So when SAO came out, it was like a dream come true... Until it became something of a nightmare. Rating for some strong language and adult-ish themes. OC Self-insert. Little main character focus. Because the games basic rules regarding skill choices are different from the light novels and the manga, this is AU.


A new story that needed to be written. I'm OC Self-inserting. Using a fake 'IRL name' and fudging a few physical details (I'm in far worse shape than I describe.) There will be little to no interaction with the main characters or the plot. I'm just using the setting to tell how I think I would react in the games setting if this were to happen to me. Anyway, here's the first chapter.

Kuta, out!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything I use, mention or reference in any way, and make no money from writing this.

* * *

**_Chapter One- The Blood-Red Monk_**

The avatar I'd designed in the beta testing was still saved as were my base skill selections, what ones I deemed most worthy of the type of toon I was trying for. I was tooning a monk, hoping to get some type of bleed over effect if I played long enough and then go up to my friends IRL and go "I know Kung Fu." I really did love that movie. Keanu Reeves, what a badass. The base skills I chose were Straight Daggers, Hand to Hand, Weapon Throwing, Leather Equipment, Parrying, Tailoring, Sprinting, Battle Healing, Searching, Acrobatics and, just to switch it up a bit, Beast Tamer. I hadn't changed my avatar too much from how I actually looked, but it took a while to get it right.

Average height, a bit on the hefty side, but with some respectable muscle under it, somewhat below average in looks, brown hair, blue eyes, square framed glasses and the scar on my right forearm from the dog attack when I was eight. My nose was just slightly crooked, my face just a tad too rounded to go well with my somewhat more angular chin. That sort of thing, though those kinds of details were still a bit hard to properly display on a computer screen.

The name was still registered too. In the beta I'd used my RL name, Ezekiel, but for the real thing I wanted more of a full immersion. different body, different world, different life-style, different _name_, so I was now trying to come up with a different one that didn't sound like a badly written anime hero. I couldn't go with my screen name on for reasons I tried to delude myself into thinking were obvious (I wasn't nearly that well know online and I damn well knew it.) So what to use? Maybe something biblical to go with the whole 'different but vaguely similar' vibe I was seeing turn into a pattern?

Joseph? No, no, far too... Generic.

Judas? Would people trust me at all? No, not a good choice...

Maybe I could pander to my disproportionately big ego and blaspheme by calling myself Jesus? Meh, narcissism was over-rated.

Hmmm... That one Jewish prophet... What was his name? Elijah? Yeah, that sounded good... Even fairly similar to his actual name in sound as well as biblical origin.

Actually no, screw that whole biblical thing, Chinese mythology was Awesome with a capital 'A' and I was gonna be a frickin' _monk_, Sun Wukong was practically a must.

A quick change of name and the monk style character named Sun_Wukong was entering into the world of Aincrad.

* * *

It wasn't long before I was out in the fields, working what paltry weapons and hand to hand skills I had to a as fine a point as I could before I had to log for bed, having been playing for about eight hours now on the last day of my weekend, work at the factory was _soo _boring. I couldn't wait to get enough money saved to open my own shop in the downtown strip mall. Selling little hand welded artsy knick-knacks that I could just cobble together however I wanted would probably pay better and feel more rewarding.

The last boar I felt like killing ATM was charging, and I had just unlocked the first (and only until I got to the second floor and got the Martial Arts skill from the quest giver) hand to hand attack skill to test out. I raised my fist and it started to shine weakly, a deepish blue color, as I dodged the weaklings first attack. As it turned I felt the skill ready itself and knew that the counter attack based move was just about ready to launch.

With timing I'd nearly perfected during the beta, I unleashed my move, Reversal. It was a forward moving sprinting jab-thrust like maneuver (you could use a kick instead but it took a bit stricter timing.) Dealing some fairly good damage based on your Dex and Strength stats, which, since there was no real magic system, were the only good stats unless you were a crafter class or a tracking expert, the move was actually incredibly useful through out the six levels I'd managed to clear soloing. It also took the quality of whatever gear you were wearing into account.

I went with a punch for this one, feeling the need to get back into the swing of the game a bit with the easier version of the move, it having been a rough two or so months since the beta'd ended. I took the beast out in one blow, katars being used to augment my hand to hand damage as I'd learned they were capable of. I noted that I'd leveled, putting me at level three, about the best I could hope for in the area at any speed if I wanted to level efficiently. But I still hadn't gotten that bit of ivory I needed to make the leather armor I was going to make just that little bit sturdier than it would have been otherwise.

Well, come to think of it, I hadn't looted this one yet. I oughta do that. And what do you know, there it was. I sat down where I was and got out all the various bits of material that I was gonna use to make my new bits of armor. Twenty-eight pieces of boar leather, enough for a chest piece, the leggings, the belt, the foot-wraps and the hand-wraps. The chest piece I was planning to make also had the good fortune of including a ready made hood that acted as a head piece as well. The whole ensemble looked badass, very monk-ish. Even more so when you bulked up it's stats with the ivory tusks that the boars dropped. With that it could carry me halfway through the fourth floor and then I could cannibalize it for materials for the next set which I didn't actually know how far it would take me.

The crafting itself took me about five minutes, it was a much slower process than smithing, which I'd have to work at at some point, having to first lay out the pieces in the right format and then having to upgrade each piece individually before putting it all in my inventory and equipping it.

The chest piece was a fairly simple affair, sleeveless with ivory snap-buttons, tightly sewed and with little bits of ivory studding it and an attached hood. The leggings and belt were simpler still, just some mildly loose-fittings trousers made fro sturdy yet supple leather and a molded hard-leather belt with an ivory buckle and some studding. the foot-wraps went up to my mid-calf and actually wrapped around my pant legs to keep them out of the way during any fancy footwork. The hand-wraps came to the middle of my biceps and actually came with a small-ish plate of ivory there, which was aesthetically pleasing to the eye if nothing else.

Then, as I was about to go back to the main menu, something caught my eye. The egg I'd gotten at character creation had changed it's name! Looking through it's new item description I realized that it was about to hatch into my new companion. I took it out of my inventory and made ready to tame the monster that was about to hatch.

The egg itself had one long, jagged crack down its center. It was a dark grey color and had a slightly lighter colored underside. I watched as a few more cracks popped up on it, encircling the top of it then some more descending from there, before it practically exploded into light particle like monsters who'd been beaten. I was hoping for a cool pet, like the little feather dragon thing I'd had in the beta, but the egg was a different color.

When the light died down I realized that I was holding the form of a smallish wolf with a metal face mask that vaguely reminded me of a Hollow from Bleach. Which explained why it was so heavy, even in egg form. I looked at it's hp bar and checked it's species name. Devouring Iron Hound, huh? Not too shabby... Now, what to name him? Hmm... Well, as a reference to Bleach it could work... Okay, yeah, he was Stark now, in memory of the Primera Espada.

Then he tried to take a bite at me and I belatedly remembered that I had to actually _tame_ him before I could actually name him, and such took a bit of time and concentration, as well as physical contact. It was somewhat similar to WoW that way.

Setting Stark on the ground and my hand atop his head, I began to tame him, even as he attempted to bite my hand off. At the end of his taming I was somewhat exhausted, definitely not up for more of this game at the moment.

As I went to the main menu and then on to the logout option I reflected on how much I really did love my decision to buy this game after all. It had been up for debate because my funds were restricted. Knick-knack store and all.

That was when the alarm sounded.

* * *

I stumbled out of the main square after Kayaba was finished with his announcement. If I... If my health dropped to zero... I'd die? Okay, new plan, acrobatics and battle healing were now priorities as were sprinting and parrying... Duels could help the second, first to red health would determine the winner... Potions were necessary now, immediately and vitally, so money was devoted mainly to that. Vitality was gonna be upped in it's importance level as a stat now, I'd need the health it would give... I'd need to make friends with some good alchemist and smithing experts, keep my weapons up to speed and help drive down potions costs. Range was a good thing to have, weapons throwing was more important now, and it would be a good idea to have a dagger like a dirk or some such on hand at all times.

I tried not to think of my body, my _real_ body, out there in the real world, laying on my bed, or perhaps a hospital bed by now, my roommate would have heard the news by now and my gotten me to a hospita- no, don't think of that, my family would hardly like to get me back only to find me a lunatic from over thinking things. Especially Megan, she'd be torn up over her little brother, comatose from a video game of all things, and she'd be over-protective enou- _**STOP THINKING ABOUT** **IT!**_

The next town would be where everyone went to plan out the assault on the boss, well, everyone who was gonna try. If I got there with enough time to spare, I could get in good with them there, and... No, it'd be better to take in a couple of noobs and train them up proper, a tank a crafter and a scout. I was dps, and that would give us the base from which to start a guild.

Plans half formed in my head, I made my decision and ran back to the town square and began to look for a few people to befriend. Then, I could begin the process of teaching them the basics and getting to the next best area to level and start leveling there for a while, running POP calculations through my head and other similar things along the way and Stark trotting along behind me.

* * *

I'd run across a few people almost immediately, they were easy to spot, because they looked lost, and scared and had no idea how to move properly. One was in low-level heavy armor and carried a two-handed battleaxe, his green eyes clashed horribly with his burnt orange shirt and his blonde hair was in disarray, like he was one of the ones who had camped out at a store to get a copy of the game, or at least that's what I thought. He was frail looking, too much so to look very much like the typical tank looked, but then the game didn't care much about that.

The other that was with him could be described as feminine, but I thought he was a guy. Short black hair, intense purple eyes, delicate features. If it weren't for the _complete_ lack of a bust-line I'm sure I'd have hit on a girl who was _that_ pretty. If I had a spine. He was in cloth armor, blue and a bit voluminous, and seemed to only have a curved dagger of some sort. He could be the scout, or the crafter. It didn't much matter, I had to get to them quickly before anyone else tried to snap them up, to use as some kind of bait for monsters or something.

I walked over to, calm as you please, and stopped in front of them. Holding out a hand, I introduced myself. "Hey, I'm Sun Wukong, I was in the beta. Want to party up? You look a bit lost." They seemed startled by my abruptness and almost ready to bolt. I laughed and continued with. "Come on, I'm just trying to be friendly here!" The blond guy seemed to calm a bit from that and held out his hand, if a bit hesitantly.

"Jericho, pleased to meet you." He nudged the other guy and he seemed to start before bowing at the waist, making me think he was japanese.

"Mellany, thank you for offering." Okay, so _she_ was, in fact, a girl. I certainly dropped the ball on that one.

"Hey, it's fine. I do this in every game I play, try to help anyone and everyone I can. And in a messed up game like this, that kinda thing's even more important, yeah?" Was my reply. "I was actually thinking of starting a Guild. Y'know, help people get on their feet or whatever. But see, problem is, I don't really have any friends yet, the other beta testers were typically elitist pricks who didn't want to help anyone but themselves. So I see you guys, the kind of people who I want to help, and think 'Well, better at least try.' Y'know?" Man, I'm such a fucking motor-mouth when I'm nervous... ish.

Jericho smiled a bit and chuckled. "Yeah, we do need the help. I'm fine with partying up with you, but I'm not sure if Mellany is. Mell?"

"Well," She seemed hesitant, like she was scared I'd attack her if she said yes. I tried out my best 'reassuring smile' on her which, if I'm totally and complete honest with myself about, probably isn't all that good. But she did visibly relax a bit from it. "I think we should. We need all the help we can get if we're gonna get out of this alive, and helping others is always a good thing to strive for."

I grin and nod decisively. "Right then, here's the deal. In SAO the best way to survive is to find a niche that fits your Primary Skills set and stick to it, combat wise. You're in heavy armor with a two-handed weapon Jericho, which means that in a boss fight or if we have to fight a larger group of monsters at once, you'll have to tank. You can take the most punishment and deal some of the best damage, which'll keep their attention mostly on you since you'll also be making lots of noise."

He nodded, probably having known that from other games he'd played. "This also means that you and the other tanks get close to the most health potions, since there's no magic and similarly no healing spells. Did you select battle Healing as one of your Primary Skills? It's essential for a tank and having it as a Primary Skill will allow you to level it a little faster." He nodded and I felt relief. "Right the only way to level it is to get your health into the red repeatedly."

He cut me off here before I could continue. "But what if I... If my HP drops to zero? I could... It..."

I held up my hand here, and looked him in the eye. "We can set up duels, first to red health. At our levels with this low-level gear, we don't have to worry about accidentally killing each other to do it. You can safely level any skill you want within towns, just like how in real life you don't have to run around shooting people to get good aim with a gun." Jericho deflated in what I assume was relief.

Then I turned to Mellany. "You... Are a crafting specialist right?" She nodded. "Well, aside from good tailoring material drops, I have now clue what to do to help you in that regard. But any combat skills you have, I can help with." She smiled at me, a little wanly, true, but she did all the same. "Alright, well, we have the beginnings of a boss tackling party here. Me on dps, Jericho on tank, and Mellany on supplies and secondary dps." She was surprised, if her face was anything to go by. "All we need is a scout who can also do some dps and we can go see about training you guys up and start gathering up a few more members so we can prep for a boss run." They exchanged somewhat fearful looks.

* * *

Allain, a good looking sort of guy with shoulder length brown hair and grey eyes ended up being our scout. He was in Light Metal armor and had a sword and shield. He seemed a little flaky to me, but he worked hard and I got good vibes from him. Which is weird, since I never got vibes, or gave them any credence when I heard others talk of them. But whatever.

Meeting him was it's own little adventure. Jericho, Mellany and I were walking down one of the main streets, me having just explained the over all goal of our guild, looking out for anyone who fit the profile I'd described to them. People who looked scared, worried and uncoordinated, with plain gear who eyed the ground a lot.

Then, completely out of nowhere, Allain, though I didn't know his name at the time, bumps into and nearly sends me to the ground. Just as he's trying to casually walk away like he didn't see where he was going, I take note that my hip feels lighter and reach out and grab his shoulder, hard enough for him to have bite back a curse.

Taking a deep calming breath, I made to ask him. "Can I have my katars back, it's kind of important that I have them."

He turned to me, somewhat fearful of how strong I seemed, before he chuckled. It was a forced thing, I could tell, but he hid that fact well. "I don't know what you're talking about man, I'm a sword user. What would I do with a set of katars?"

"I don't know," I replied, pretending to actually not know what he'd do with my katars, a fairly uncommon weapon choice that might rouse some collectors interest. "Sell it, perhaps?" I finished in a dead pan.

He chuckled again and offered it back to me. I thanked him and kept my hand on his shoulder, taking note of his armor and weapons choices. He looked like a scout to me. "Say, could you tell me one thing? How's your Searching skill?"

An hour later he was in our party and I was taking them out to do one of the quests in the immediate vicinity that would benefit them all.

* * *

It took a rough two weeks for me to be satisfied with their progress and be sure that they were ready for a boss run. Now we had to recruit another team or so. I was thinking four groups, one with three tanks and me on dps, to take on the boss himself and keep it's attention as well as deal damage. Another with three dps and a tank to take on Illfang's helpers, a scouting and dps group for damage, support for any groups that seemed out of their depth and to make sure we knew where we were going, and a fourth consisting of crafting specialists who would keep us supplied with healing pots, and maybe Stark would be with them too, as back up for them in case they needed it.

Gathering them up wasn't too hard, it only took a mention of the purpose of our Guild, which we had actually made already, and my beta test experience for a few of the weaker players to trickle in. A couple of stronger ones as well, who wanted to help our purpose. That was when I realized that our Guild name wasn't too good, and changed it from Golden Militators to Wolves of the Relieving Dawn, In honor of our little mascot; Stark. It told people what we did (alleviate stress from the people who needed it in whatever area we were in) and what our over all goal was (to bring them light, however we could, in a dark time.)

It when we got around sixteen members I disallowed the inviting of more people into the Guild and began to train those members we did have, and that actually needed the training because there were a few who knew mostly what they were doing, in what they'd need to know. Jericho, Mell, and Al helped me do it, to cut down on time.

The new members were trained up fairly fast, only another four weeks. Their names and niches were; Ooriche (pronounced Urick)- tank, Kiruhe- crafter, Orihime- dps, Cao Ming- tank, Frederick- scout/dps, Irumi- tank, Honda- crafter, Celine- crafter, Mordecai- scout/dps, Haddock- dps, Goro- scout/dps and Josh- dps. Irumi, Goro, Kiruhe and Frederick were the ones who needed very little help. At least, by comparison.

* * *

Ooriche, a larger (and somewhat older) guy with a fair bit of pudge, was pretty gruff. In his own, well-meaning, fashion he reassured the other noobs I'd picked up that we'd be okay. I liked him, a bit more than almost everybody else in the guild. He knew enough about life to know that group like ours were necessary to keep people from descending into depression. He made wise-cracks a lot, when he felt like talking in something other than a grunt. He favored a pole-axe in battle and made people tend to work to get in range to hit him.

Kiruhe was a meek person, probably only fourteen and with a lot of excessive limb length. His glasses were a bit too small for his face and he hid his fear of our situation behind a lot of book knowledge and fact stating. But for all his obvious flaws, it didn't take much work for me to make him a competent fighter with his lance, nor did take much time to make him into a great blacksmith. When he wasn't trying to impress his knowledge of games and gaming in general upon you... He was still pretty geeky, but then, that was to be expected from most of the kids who played this type of game.

Orihime, who said she was an accountant back in real life, had a real mouth on her. When she was pissed you knew it, and if you didn't know her very well, she seemed angry almost all the time, aside from when she was around Josh. Then she turned into an adorable little ball of embarrassment and nervous energy. I say this as if I were older than her, but in reality, despite her small stature, the miniature red-headed bombshell was almost five years my senior. She dealt in dual daggers (the only weapons in the game that could be dual wielded, to my knowledge) and dabbled with poisons on the side.

Cao Ming's well trimmed and immaculately braided beard made me think of Cao Cao from Dynasty Warriors. He looked vaguely similar as well, with regal Asian features and dark eyes. He was a very serious kind of person, one who took everything he did and it's possible consequences into account when making decisions. That he'd agreed to join us as quickly as he had puzzled me for a time before I realized that he was using his inherently serious and contemplative nature to fend off a panic attack or seven. In his vaguely oriental looking Heavy Armor and wielding a falchion-like curved two-handed sword, he cut an imposing figure.

Frederick had a fair idea of how the game worked, the mechanics of it and such, when I first met him. He was an average sized guy with a slightly southern American accent that made me think of Texas. He was slow with his speech, seeming to measure his words against his meaning and because of this was very rarely misunderstood. He had a few days worth of beard on his face, and looked to be about my age. When telling a joke, as he was wont to do when bored, he had a slight mischievous gleam in his amber eyes. With an axe in one hand he could go toe to toe with anybody in the guild bar me and come out at least even. Often times he did far better than that.

Irumi had to be my favorite person in the guild, and once I got to know her, it was soon fairly obvious (to everyone but her, like in a bad anime) that I had developed a massive crush on her that I was too afraid to try and capitalize on. She was maybe and inch shorter than my five foot eight inches with shoulder length black hair that she usually did up in a loose bun near the nape of her neck. Her blue eyes were a shade of blue I had never encountered before and haven't since, similar to the ocean when seen from the sky, but also like the night sky at the same time. She had high cheek bones and a straight delicate nose, her jaw was soft and feminine and her neck was as long and slender as the rest of her body. She wielded a large shield and a one handed curved sword, like a scimitar. She was from the military, on leave since she'd had a debilitating leg injury that they had to wait to see if it would heal up properly. When on quests, or 'missions' as she sometimes referred to them, she spoke mostly in military jargon. Off duty she was fairly crisp, but never rude or abrupt. We shared a lot of interests, but had just enough differences in how we viewed them to have friendly debates about them.

Honda was by far the largest man I'd ever personally met in my life, and I think his parents may have named him after the Street Fighter character. He was over seven and a half feet tall and had muscle enough to make me look at my own, comparably puny muscles with shame. That said, the reason I brought up Street Fighter is that Honda was also very gut heavy, and in his cloth robes looked very much like a sumo relaxing before his next match. He was a gentle soul, without much reason to fight, hence his choice of very few combat oriented skills and focus on mercantile skills such as appraising and alchemy, he could brew up a buff pot that was better than some high end shops we could currently go to. He had a diverse and appreciable sense of humor finding it in himself to genuinely laugh at both Frederick's dirty southern style humor and Jericho black comedy in equal measure, as well as everything in between. When forced into a fight, he slung around a warhammer like it was made of paper.

Celine was a young blond boy who'd decided to toon a girl. He said he was planning on conning other, actual males out of their valuables to either sell or give to the other character he'd make once he'd made a bit of a nest egg on this character. He liked maces and didn't seem to care what he hit with them or for what reason. Being stuck with a girls name for however long we were stuck here probably had more than a bit to do with that. His smithing was solid, though his tailoring was significantly better. He toyed with alchemy on the side, and was fairly good with making healing pots. I loved teasing him about the name bit, and he almost always threw a fit, though as time went on I think he grew to enjoy the good-natured ribbing.

Mordecai was Russian on his mothers side. She was born and raised there and he grew up and learned to speak English while surrounded by his parents thick Russian accents. He sounded like and, in fact, **was** a complete and total _badass._ He picked up what I taught him more quickly than anyone else in the Guild and had, in my honest opinion, the best sense of humor. That said he was also a bit of a douche bag, and pissed off everyone in the Guild at least once a week. His skill with a spontoon or a hasta when combined with a shield though... It was an advantage we liked to have.

Haddock was a quiet guy, he usually didn't talk unless someone was gonna do something insanely stupid. More often than not, that someone was Celine, whom he seemed to have a soft spot for. Haddock was short, almost as much as Orihime, and he was stuck toting around a large scythe, almost taller than he was. In a mixture of leather and metal armor, he had a reasonable balance between speed and defense. He was partial to one handed straight swords, and rapiers in particular, but was reluctant to bring down his movement and attacking speed with a shield.

Josh was an annoying kind of guy, to me at least. He was a pretty boy. In real life, he was rich. he hadn't had to deal with any real hardship in his life before all this had happened, and he knew it. But the cavalier way he treated the whole thing got on my nerves, though as I said, Orihime seemed to somehow get off on it. He wielded a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other something that I hadn't thought of before, but now that I knew it was possible, I could admit that it was a fairly good idea.

Goro was from Australia or maybe New Zealand, judging by his accent. he was a fairly tall guy, standing at around six foot or so. He had an interesting scar on his neck, said it was from a scorpion sting. I'm not sure if that's true, but I wasn't about to make any kind of noise about it. He like to turtle behind his shield and then use his cutlass to slice a person to ribbons. He joked around a lot and was big on staying in touch after we beat the game, not that it was something I was against.

* * *

We spent the next week getting our weapons armor and such prepped, and stockpiling our potions. I made sure to tell them about the Last Attack bonus items that bosses dropped and that we would divide them up based on who did the most damage and who needed them most. No one would get more than one rare piece of equipment from a boss that was taken down by the group. They all agreed that such was fair. The week after that was spent mapping out the bosses dungeon and doing what leveling we could.

During this time, Stark had grown considerably, from the size of a chihuahua to about the size of a Labrador. His attacks had some small amount of kick to them now and we made a formidable team since he could cast lower level healing spells, unlike every player in the system. It seemed that Tamed Beasts came with a few perks.

On the day we were going to do our boss run, I gave them a more detailed run down on what my beta knowledge told me about Illfang, the Kobold Lord. He had an axe and a shield, but tossed them once his fourth and final hp bar got into the red and pulled out a large two-handed sword known as a talwar. I told them that he became much more aggressive and faster, dealing more damage, and that at that point, we'd need to surround him and keep him off balance or most of us were liable to die. We were around level ten now. I then said that my knowledge may be a little off, since some of the monsters I'd encountered had changed a bit from the beta. They took this with a grain of salt.

We entered just in time to see the last of a group of people exiting through the portal on the other side.

"Fuck!" I exploded, causing the rest of the guild to look at me questioningly. "We just missed the last of some other group who already beat Illfang... He's gonna respawn in just a few minutes and if we'd been a few seconds faster getting here, we could have hitched a ride to the second floor with those guys instead of having to fight." The others cursed too, especially Orihime, whom I'd noted to be fairly hot tempered. We waited a few moments and sure enough a pair of dull red, slightly glowing eyes popped into existence in a throne not far away before he leaped at us and brandished his weaponry, the room lighting up technicolor. And the boss music started playing, which was nice, in so far as it made the whole thing feel really epic.

I had Irumi and Ming go up in front with me and Jericho as we worked best together. Josh and Orihime had hit off from the start so they were paired together with Haddock and Ooriche to take on the guards while the scouts and the crafters hung back to send support where necessary.

When Illfang pulled out a sword other than a talwar, I became concerned. "That's not a talwar, I don't know what it is but fall back! Tanks, keep his attention while the dps and scouts take him out from behind, everyone, be ready to switch with everyone else at a moments notice, we need to keep this guy off balance!" From the moment the first sentence left my lips I felt ill at ease, this guy could be very, very different with whatever weapon he had in his hands. I was being cautious and it saved Celine's life.

Illfang almost immediately went after him and she would have been cut to ribbons, inattentive as he was being, if I hadn't distracted the beast at the last second by throwing one of my katar at his head.

He went after me immediately and started bouncing around the ceiling. Two could play at that game, since my acrobatics and sprinting were so high. With my katar back in hand after throwing it, I ran at the wall, hopefully drawing Illfang's attention. I yelled at my guildmates. "Remember the plan, I'll lure him back to the ground, you be ready to surround him and start hacking away!"

That seemed to kick start their brains again and I felt relief that they were thinking again and jumped at the wall once I hit full speed. I kicked off again once I hit it, bouncing toward Illfang who was still chasing me. He raised his blade- I still didn't know what it was- and I readied my katar. As he let loose a slash, I twisted to my left, under his attack and slashed at his right shoulder while passing him by. He hit the wall I'd bounced off of soon after and growled at me before giving chase.

I didn't waste any time showing off I let him get fairly close to me before I landed, right next to the rest of the guild and turned immediately so that I could dodge his attack and did just that. Or so I thought, it was just a faint and I moved into the path of his much faster follow up swing. I ate the damage and saw my health drop to just shy of the red. Shit. "Switch! Don't get hit, he'll take you down in one or two hits if you don't heal up quick!"

"Acknowledged." Was Irumi's response as she and Haddock made to switch in and take Illfang's attention. Irumi was always talking in military terms. Mell ran up with a healing pot in hand, I had used all mine earlier in the fight and Stark was harrying Illfang's ankles. "Are the guards down too?" I asked once I'd downed the potion. Nasty tasting things.

"Yeah, took out the last just before he grabbed... Whatever sword that is. Do you really not have any data on it?" She'd gotten so much more open, at least, with the rest of the guild. It was good for her.

"None, never seen anything like it." I replied morosely, watching as Illfang, currently surrounded by a the tanks, the dps and half of the scouts, let loose an area of effect attack smashing all of them into pillars or walls, and doing a metric ass load of damage as well, Stark among them and nearly dead from that attack alone. Suddenly, though, I knew what to do to beat it (and more importantly, him as well) and was filled with determination once more. "Freddy, Goro! On me! We'll take him out together, it should only take a few more hits, Goro you should turtle like usual while Freddy doles out the dps. I'm gonna hang back and wait for and opening for a Reversal!" They nodded their understanding and I got up and rushed into the fight once more, whistling for Stark at the same time.

Goro got there first, keeping his sword and shield up and taking the brunt of the damage through that shield. Freddy got in the kobold's face and under his guard, slashing away with a one-handed axe. As Illfang started up his area of effect attack again, I shouted. "Switch!" And charged up my Reversal skill as Freddy and Goro quickly back-peddled. If I could time it right, it should be enough to net us the win. I ran forward toward Illfang and made sure to get there after the attack had been let loose. I was able to duck under his blade and waited until I got the feeling that the skill was ready. Wait for it... Wait for it... There!

With a lighting fast jab, I stabbed the monstrous Lord of all Kobolds in the gut before tearing my fist, and the weapon it just so happened to hold, sideways, ripping his stomach open and taking his health down to zero. Stark was still trying to get up and answer my whistle.

As the congratulatory banner was displayed and the gold and experience divvied out, I collapsed to my back and panted out a small laugh. This world of Aincrad made me feel so _alive_ at times. As I looked up at the ceiling though I wondered if this would last after our time in SAO was over, whether these bonds I felt would last in the real world without the stress of a death game to force us into cooperation. I put those grim thoughts from my mind though and sat up, calling the others over.

I brought up the inventory of items that Illfang dropped. There was a black leather coat with nice stats, a... Nodachi? Must be the sword he was using. A nice piece of heavy armor shoulders and some rare tailoring materials, C-class ones. The ranking system ranging from F to S meant that the armor made from those was good through to probably a fairly high level area. maybe the mid-thirties? I couldn't say for sure.

But there was enough for three suits of it.

Jericho got the shoulder armor piece, having done the most damage of all the tanks. Ming, having gotten the second most damage, and being a two-handed curved sword wielder, got the Nodachi. The coat went to Celine, having the most need of it and having done the most damage out of the crafter group. I, having done the most dps damage, got some of the crafting materials. I could make my own armor, having a high enough skill and a good imagination to complement it. Orihime got another and Allain the last.

The loot from Illfang's guards was divvied up similarly, but amongst the rest of my people who'd done less damage. I went over to Stark with Celine by my side to heal him. As he whimpered in pain, I gave one of my truest companions in this fucked up world a consoling pat on the side before hauling him up in my arms like I had when he was still small.

* * *

I grinned as I turned in the quest that would give me my Martial Arts skill. It was about a week after we'd beaten Illfang, through a combination of good tactical processing on my part, the others keeping their heads when shit hit the fan and an ass load of luck. And I'd gotten that new armor made, it was red and still looked very 'young-battle-ready-monk-of-the-Oreint.' Which I very much liked.

I'd insisted on everyone in the Guild having the Martial Arts skill, so that they weren't helpless should their weapon break, and I was the last one to turn it in after helping the others get it done. I had leveled off of turning it in as well, putting me at level twelve. Assigning my stat points, I noted that my skill list notification said I had _two _new skills, rather than the one I would normally get from the quest. No one else in the Guild had brought this up, and they would have since I'd beaten it into their heads that the quest only gave the ability to use skills other than Reversal in the Hand to Hand skill tree.

Looking at my skills list, I saw it there, under Hand to Hand. Martial Arts, and under that... A skill I'd never even heard of, Armed Martial Fighting. It's description... 'Utilizing a katar in each hand, _you_ may channel any Martial Arts technique into your weapon as well as your fist, resulting in an exponential increase in damage.' Well... Fuck. That was nice. And it seemed it was a unique skill as well, if the italics were anything to go by.

I showed the Guild my new skill and they were suitably impressed and asked how to get and why I hadn't told them about it before. I told them that I'd honestly never heard of it before, and thought it might be unique or required a specialization in katars. I trained with them with it and for the next three weeks and we were eventually able to develop skills for me to use specifically with it.

* * *

Over the course of the next few months things continued in that way, we would train together, help what players we could in our off time and always push forward, testing the front line alongside powerful Guilds like the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Divine Dragon Alliance. And Stark grew to the size of a small horse, I could even ride him now. He could out damage me now, though his healing abilities were still comparatively low as was his health, and he got absolutely no buffing abilities either passive or active. Trade off.

I had noticed something in game that was weird to me, after a few months. None of the other players seemed to have the high speed movement skill, which was the entire point of having Sprinting as a trainable skill, learned except my Guild. It's name was fairly unique, I'd been expecting something generic like X-Sprint, or an anime rip-off like Flash Step from Bleach. It was called Feather Movement, and acted similarly to Shunpo from Naruto, something like a short range teleport only you could hit stuff that was in your way.

It was called Feather Movement because you could get a pretty high skill level in it and evade stuff while still teleporting which was impossible when you first got it, it was like a straight line of running faster than the eye could see at that point. It became more like you being a feather drifting and twirling in the breeze at those same speeds when your skill level with it was high enough.

We encountered a lot of people during this time. The Black Swordsman, Kirito among them. A good guy, under all his facades of disinterest and anti-socialisiticness... Which I'm fairly sure isn't a word... Whatever. We met Heathcliff, the leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath as well, on multiple occasions. He seemed intent on getting me into his Guild, and fuck all if I had responsibilities to mine, apparently. He was strong though, ridiculously so. He solo tanked bosses on occasion and never seemed to sweat from it at all.

Then the rumors of PKers started up. Groups like Titans' Hand or Laughing Coffin who killed other players for their items and gold. I couldn't stand the thought. Sure there may not have been proof that we'd actually die in the real world if we died here, but there was no proof that we didn't either, so killing was something me and the rest of the Guild couldn't abide. Especially after a certain event that I won't go into detail on now, too fresh.

We quit the front line after that, and took up hunting down PK groups for The Army. It was during this time that I earned the moniker of 'the Blood-red Monk', a PK Hunter whose Guild never let a PKer go free if we could help it (I'd taken to dyeing my armors red, as I'd really liked the armor I'd gotten from Illfang's drops (I'd been wrong about how long those would last as well, they only lasted me until floor 4 and level 19.))

And who sometimes strayed a little too close to the orange when pushed by those he hunted.

We collectively decided on a red and grey tabard like garment to be our uniform, with a black wolf head symbol as our crest.

Until the day when we all realized that we weren't large enough to do so effectively.

We'd heard rumor of a Guild, fairly weak and not looking to be going much of anywhere, by the name of The Silver Flags getting wiped out by Titans' Hand and that their last surviving member was searching for someone to avenge them. I had Goro track him down, and when we met it was only to discover that he'd gotten the Black Swordsman of the lead group to do it. We asked why he hadn't asked us for help and he replied that he couldn't find us because we were so small.

The day after I gathered the guys into our main meeting place on floor Forty-Eight and told them what I though of this. "We can't let things like this happen, we can't let PKers think they can get away with murder like that!" I called smashing the table with a fist and rattling the house slightly. The rest of the Guild, a little nervous at the vehemence in my voice recognizing it as me being in a foul enough mood to spar (which usually meant bad things for whoever it was I sparred with), nodded all the same. They felt the same way, if not quite as violently.

"But as we are now," I continued, voice low and harsh, chaffing at our constraints. "We can't do very much about it. We're still too small of a Guild to pose much of a threat to PKers at large." I'm sure they could tell I was... Less than pleased about having to say that, I could tell by their nervous shifting. "So we're gonna go recruiting." They perked up a bit. Since our initial recruitment drive that got us all together I hadn't allowed anyone else to join, for reasons that hadn't made sense to them then, but did after a time.

Irumi was the one to voice the concern. "Now? After all this time? Wouldn't it mess up our team dynamics?"

"A valid point Irumi, but answer me this... If you each trained two people, and then had those two people train two more people and then had those two people train another two and so on... Wouldn't that set up an environment where they could all work together and leave us mostly to us?" Was my succinct reply. "We're going to branch out, we're going to expand, and we're going to set up a guild four hundred strong and have a notable presence on each and every floor of this damned death trap of a game world! I will not let others be murdered when we could have stopped it. We will not allow PKers and MPKers to run free while we sit on our asses and twiddle our thumbs taking out one or two here and there and lose more and more people every day!" They were beginning to show signs of experiencing my vigor, my dedication to this prospect. "Now get out there and recruit us some more comrades! Remember, those who disobey the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash and the entirety of this games population are our comrades!" They cheered then, and I assume most of them recognized the Naruto quote for what it was, and charged out the door to look for new recruits.

~End of Chapter One.

* * *

Right then, this was just eating at me to be written once I watched the episodes of the anime that are currently out. Did you like it? I like it, and will continue to write it. The New Demon is coming along slowly, and I'm having to force things. The Greatest Familiar is a little better but I'm still planning for that one, since it will be fairly long. Crack of Thunder and Ice is being... pushed back to a lower priority for now, I'll write a bit for it here and there and post a chapter when it gets done. And the Universe Fell is coming along well, it was only in the developmental stages outside of chapter one when I posted that, but the outlines are almost done now and I should be able to start seriously writing it soon.

I keep re-reading this and finding new mistakes or things that I need to add or fat that could be cut away. Which I suppose is what results from cobbling this together without any real plan in mind. I'm working on that as a side project, but for now I'm just gonna cobble together a few sideline plots to fill in the timeskip a little, kinda like how the manga handled things with the actual characters.


End file.
